The Peach Festival has been held in August of every year since 1947. The festival is staged to honor and celebrate the tradition of fruit growing in the Okanagan Valley, especially of peaches. It transpires that Penticton is near the northern end of the climactic zone in which is is commercially feasible to grow peaches.
Peaches have been grown in the Okanagan Valley since the late 1800s.
Basically a giant peach in appearance, The Penticton Peach is about 14-15 feet (4¼ to 4½ metres) in diameter.
The Peach has become a Penticton Icon. As such it has become tradition to dress
The Peach in various costumes through the year in celebration of dates such as Christmas, Easter or Halloween. It briefly wore a mask during the COVID pandemic and sported a Scottish tam when the
Scotties Tournament of Hearts came to town in 2018. Over the years
The Peach has also been adorned with various murals depicting local themes or scenes.
The Peach grows ears
Another holiday, another costume for the Penticton Peach.
It's becoming a bit of a tradition for the iconic ice cream stand.
"Quite simply, it's to bring happiness to the community," owner of the Peach and LocoLanding, Diana Stirling said in March when the Peach got the
St. Patrick's Day treatment
"We're adding a fun personality to Penticton's iconic Peach, and the community is not only supporting it, but they are genuinely excited each time it dresses up, which we appreciate."
The Peach has also recently been painted grape for April Fools, donned
a Santa hat and became
a jack-o-lantern.
From Castanet
When the weather warms up in the spring, sometime each May (depending on the weather) The Peach suddenly blossoms into
The Peach Ice Cream Shop, specializing in all things "
Ice Cream", such as its signature "
Crazy Shakes" and "
Crazy Cones". Called Crazy Shakes, it often takes two people to consume the ice cream/dessert topping that goes into a shake. The shakes are served in a peach themed jar and come complete with full servings of cake or a brownie and whipped cream on top. As well as ice cream delights, they also serve liquid refreshments and, on busy mid summer weekends they also set up a barbecue in front for burgers & dogs. The Peach remains open each year until the end of September.
Photo courtesy of The Peach Ice Cream Shop